Queen Glaciana Frostborne Alpineglow's Arc

Chapter 30 of 33

The heir came early. Glaciana woke before dawn with a tight pain low in her belly. She pressed her hand there and felt it come again, harder. Outside, snow struck the windows in sheets. Her power had slept for days. Now it stirred with the storm, cold prickling her fingers for the first time since the slope. "Victor," she said. He was already awake, already reaching for her. "It's time." He did not waste words. He wrapped her in blankets and carried her down the heated corridors himself. The dragon met them in the courtyard. It would not let them pass alone. It followed low to the ground, wings tucked, and curled its body around the outer wall of the hospital wing once she was inside. No guard argued with it. The storm worsened as her pains grew. Wind hammered the pale stone walls. Glaciana felt the cold answer in her, wild and hard to hold. Ice crept across the floor beneath the bed. She could not stop it. Elariel came through the door. The high elf was Glaciana's friend, silver-haired and calm, and she had helped birth children before. She took one look at the frost spreading and knelt without flinching. "Breathe with the pain, not against it," Elariel said. She laid a cool hand on Glaciana's brow. "The cold is yours. Send it into the floor, not into me." Glaciana gripped Victor's hand and pushed. The ice cracked out in a ring. Elariel did not move away. She stayed low, her voice steady, naming each moment as it came. "Head first. Good. Once more, Glaciana." Victor stayed at her side the whole time. He did not flinch at the frost or the storm. He held her hand and let her crush it. "You've got this, baby," he said. "I'm here." Glaciana pushed a final time and screamed. The storm outside broke into a howl, then went quiet. A thin cry filled the room. Elariel lifted the child and wrapped it in cloth. "A daughter," Elariel smiled. "She's whole. She's strong." The dragon outside pressed its snout to the window. Glaciana took the baby to her chest. The cold in the room drew inward and settled, calm now, gathered around the small body in her arms. Her power had not failed her. It had waited for this. Victor knelt beside them both. He touched the baby's cheek with one finger. For once he had nothing clipped to say. "The heir to one throne," Glaciana said. Her voice shook. "She's here." Elariel wiped her hands and stood. Her eyes stayed on the child a moment too long, something wistful in them, then she looked away. "She'll need a name before the courts arrive," she said. "They'll want to see her by nightfall." Glaciana held her daughter tighter. The kingdom she had built now had someone to inherit it. The courts would come. Victor and her would face them with their daughter in Glaciana’s arms.